The 5 Best Moments of Pregnancy (so far)

#1 Finding out I was pregnant!

When I first found out I was pregnant, I wasn't at home. I wasn't with my husband, and I wasn't even alone.
Nope. I was standing in a public bathroom, surrounded by 6 other girls in my nursing school class, and I was shaking harder than a washing machine on spin cycle ;)

On a whim, I bought the pregnancy test on my way to class when I was picking up donuts. A girl in my class saw the pregnancy test in my bag during class and of course the whole class forced me to take it right then and there... (but I'm so glad I did!)

When it showed up as positive, we all started jumping up and down and screaming, and I'm pretty sure I was crying :)

Of course, the day I found out also happened to be the simulation lab with the maternity mannequin. And yes, that's a plastic placenta

It was really fun to have so many girls around me. And it's special because I'll have this baby while I'm still in nursing school, so these girls will go through it all with me!

#2 Telling Zach he's going to be a dad!

I decided to tell Zach by having him open up a gift with a little onesie inside that said "Daddy's sidekick". The hardest part was driving all the way home from Ogden (1.5 hours!), talking on the phone to Zach and not even telling him!

I was sooo worried he wouldn't be surprised at all because I always told him when I tell him I'm pregnant I'm going to film it on my phone. So the whole set up was pretty obvious by the time he sat down. But nevertheless, his reaction was priceless :)

It was such a special moment, when we hugged right after I told him. I just remember thinking, Wow, nothing is ever going to be the same now. And I can't wait.

#3 Hearing our baby's heartbeat for the first time 

Being in the cool family that I married into, I am SET when it comes to maternity care. I have a father-in-law who's an OB/GYN, a sister-in-law who's a nurse midwife, and 2 sisters-in-law who are labor and delivery nurses. (And since I want to be a nurse midwife, did I marry into the right family or what?)

That means I got to hear my baby's heart beat at only 6 weeks! I was really nervous, of course. Everyone worries about not finding the heartbeat on ultrasound the first time,  and I even had some nightmares about it the night before. But the first time I heard that 'lil thump thump thump thump and saw my 'lil bean on the ultrasound screen, I just got this overwhelming feeling of love. I have never loved anything as much as I love our little cheerio.

Here's our 'lil cheerio, only 6 weeks along :)

#4 Telling our family :)

I called both of my sisters right away (I just couldn't wait to tell them!), and they were so excited for me. Then, over the next few weeks, we told both of our families. Here's some of my favorite photos of their reaction to the news:

my parents' reaction. my mom wasn't surprised, but soooooooooooo excited

Zach's parents' reaction: we tried to tell them by taking a picture AS we announced it, but they laughed it off when we first told them because no one believed us! So we had to convince them for a few minutes before they finally realized we were actually pregnant!

Zach's sister, Brittani. She cried.

Zach's sister, Erin. She cried too :)

This is one of my favorites, Zach's sister, Ashley :)

#5 Seeing baby move (&wiggle & kick & dance) for the first time

Terrible picture, I know, but you can see the face profile and the baby's little fist :)

This was at my last prenatal visit, and baby was kicking and punching her arms around like crazy! I don't have a video of it, so I'll keep this one brief. My mom was there, and she and I both got all teary--it was really special. Before we could only see still pictures of the baby, but for some reason seeing the baby move around in realtime made the baby seem more like a baby. I can't wait for Zach to see baby dance around at the next ultrasound! It's just so surreal to know that my baby is growing in me. 

Already, it's the most wonderful thing I have ever done. 

June 17th can't come fast enough!

14 Weeks

How big is baby: Size of a lemon!

Total weight gain/loss: (still) +2 lbs.

Maternity clothes: Nope! It's all leggings at this point, though. Even my scrub pants are getting tight :(

Best moment this week: I feel like I finally started "showing". It still just looks like I ate a big dinner, but at least I'm getting the baby bump!

Food cravings: Queso. The other night we went out to dinner at Chili's just so I could get their skillet queso (soooooooooo good) and I got my entire meal to-go, and instead just ate the entire pan of chips & queso. Haha. Poor baby.

Food aversions: Still can't eat eggs. Even the smell of scrambled eggs sets me off and I can't eat for a few hours after I see or smell them. YUCK!

Gender: Lately I've been thinking it's a boy. I had a dream the other night that we took the baby home from the hospital in its carseat and we had to wait until we got home to see the baby or find out the gender. And all our family was gathered around when we opened the carseat, and when we found out it was a boy, everyone was cheering and jumping up and down. So that dream has got me pretty convinced ;)

Names: Same names. But I'll tell you about them now. Anders-- this is a family name that I've always loved. My dad is Swedish and I have always loved my Swedish heritage. (Side note: I work in the nursery at 3 different hospitals, so I see a LOT of baby names every day and I have never ever seen an Anders or Everly!)

Labor signs: No, thank goodness!

Pregnancy symptoms: Nausea is getting better! I only throw up on days when I work. I guess baby doesn't like waking up at 5am and working 12 hour shifts. (Baby takes after me)

What I am looking forward to: I get really excited just thinking about decorating the nursery. It's like a dream of mine. I decided the nursery is going to be animal-theme. I got some baby animal prints from The Animal Print Shop last week to frame and hang above the crib. I've loved these prints since before I got pregnant, and I am beyond in love with them. Here's what they look like:

Pictures above the crib (not my crib)

This monkey! I die.

Funny Moment: I think the funniest thing for me these past few weeks is my obsession with catheters. Ever since I got pregnant, I have to pee ALL. THE. TIME. And lately I've been thinking about how nice it would be if I could just have a foley catheter. (Obviously my pregnancy brain isn't making me think about how horrible catheters really are....). But I've had a few dreams where I go to the hospital in a wheelchair, unable to move or walk and the only thing the doctors do is put a foley catheter in me and all of a sudden I can walk again! It's the best dream ever! I know, my subconscious is being a little dramatic, but I really can't wait until I can go a whole night without waking up to pee ;)

Milestones: Nothing too big. I can't wait until week 16, when we can find out the gender. Or will we....? :)

12 Weeks

I've decided to do a little questionnaire every couple of weeks of my pregnancy, to be able to look back and see how my pregnancy has changed, and just for the fun of it :)

How far along: 12 weeks (every Wednesday is a new week).

Total weight gain/loss: +2 lbs.

Maternity clothes: Not yet! I have noticed my jeans getting tighter around the waist though. Can you say leggings?? ;)

Best moment this week: I got to see baby wiggle and dance on ultrasound this week :) She/He was sooo cute and I couldn't stop skipping around all day and talking about it all the time because I was just on cloud 9!

Food cravings: RAMEN NOODLES! This is probably a combination of pregnancy craving and the fact that I have been so nauseous and vomitting constantly that I can't even fathom eating anything else but ramen, gatorade, and apples. (sorry, baby!)

Food aversions: Meat. Eggs. This was sad for me because it was Thanksgiving was this week and I couldn't stomach any turkey. And my parents were in town, which means they took us out to eat a lot and I probably had 4 bites of every meal :(

Gender: At least today, I think it's a girl! I think it's a girl because I have been suuuper nauseous this week, and rumor has it that nausea=girl 

Names: Anders (boy) & Everly (girl). These have been decided since we were engaged, so this question is going to be pretty boring the whole pregnancy ;)

Labor signs: No, thank goodness!

Pregnancy symptoms: Nausea, throwing up, gagging, dry heaving. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up at this point.... I carry vomit bags around in my purse, backpack, car, and all over the house. I can't even brush my teeth without gagging. Let's just say, I'm ready to be done with first trimester...

What I am looking forward to: I ordered a stroller yesterday on Cyber Monday and I'm so excited about it! I did a TON of research on strollers, and when I found this one it was true love. I can't wait to try it out!

Funny Moment: Pregnancy has made me cry, a lot. Not like sad tears. Mostly happy tears. I cry when I hear Christmas music, I cry when I see a video about dogs. Any video at all. And this week, I cried when I took a bite out of an Einstein's bagel. I was just so overwhelmed by how delicious it was, and since I had eaten nothing but ramen & apples for 3 days, the bagel just overcame me. Haha! I can only imagine what everyone in the bagel shop was thinking when I was just sobbing eating my bagel. 

Anyway, here's the bagel: Cranberry bagel with cinnamon shmear. (Just don't blame me when you cry over its deliciousness)

Milestones: We announced it on Facebook! It was really fun, because people were so nice and excited for us! I was nervous people would be rude and judgemental for deciding to have a baby so young (like some people were when we got engaged....) but everyone is so excited for us!! It's so nice to not have to keep it a secret anymore, too :)

Pioneer Day

Happy Pioneer Day! (Yes, it's a real holiday--God bless Utah)

So, we packed up our things and headed up to Tibble Fork Reservoir to do some campin' & swimmin' with our friends.

"hashtag no filter"

 master chef Nick

Slacklining. Some of us were better than others ;)

Nick & Zach were really good but Rue was definitely the master slack-liner ;)

 This cracks me up so much! We got them lifejackets and you can carry them around!!

Rue hates swimming so we pulled her on the raft instead

Harper liked to sit on my lap as we floated around. Awww.

Thanks, Nick & Jenny! We had so much fun!

(spikey-butt)

Rachel Mariesa Photography

A few weeks ago, my friend Rachel asked if she could take some pictures of us. She was one of the photographers for our wedding and is so talented, so we were honored.

 I love our little family. Every day I think to myself that I'm the luckiest person in the world.

Check out Rachel's work here, and here. She is also a very talented graphic designer and has done a lot of work for me and my Etsy shop business.

Thanks, Rachel!

Rue & Harper Turn One

Yes, we had a birthday party for our dogs. Are you really surprised? As if having their own Instagram & Etsy shop wasn't enough... we threw them a birthday party. Yes, we are obsessed with our dogs.

Now that that's out of the way, let's move on:

Rue & Harper had the best doggy birthday party ever.

Rue's face kills me.

     And our dear beagle-friend Molly came.

I say "dear", but it turns out Molly doesn't feel the same about Rue

But she sure looks good in a party hat ;)

What's a party without peanut-butter-apple-yam-carrot cake?

And pinatas, of course. 

world's biggest bone.

I also made sweek pork tacos (which were sooooo good), and carrot cake. We had a lot of fun laughing at the dogs.

Thanks to everyone who came!

Until next year ;)